Vivian Girls' Cassie Ramone Opens Up About New Album, Side-Projects

BY Alex HudsonPublished Oct 26, 2010

Last month, Brooklyn, NY fuzz pop champs Vivian Girls revealed that they would be releasing their third album, Share the Joy, next spring via Polyvinyl. Now, singer/guitarist Cassie Ramone has shared some details about the album, as well as shedding some light on her side-project, the Babies, and her upcoming solo album.

Ramone told Spin that Vivian Girls are almost finished recording the ten tracks that will make up Share the Joy. The title, she said, is taken from a song by Burt Bacharach and his lyricist, Hal David.

"His songwriting is unspeakably beautiful," she said of Bacharach (who she discovered watching Austin Powers). "It's had a massive influence on my music."

Speaking of other artists whose sound helped shape the new record, she says, "Steely Dan has been a big influence on me lately. I got really into Steely Dan about a year ago."

The group are now in the final stages of recording at Rear House Studios in Brooklyn, with Jarvis Taveniere (Woods, Meneguar). "A lot of people will say that this new album is less 'lo-fi,'" she said. "The other two albums were recorded in small chunks of time. For the first album, we only had enough money for three days in the studio. The second took eight days. This process isn't like that. We started in late August and worked on the album one or two days per week."

In addition to having a more studied approach in the studio, Share the Joy will differ in lyrical content. Rather than singing about failed romance, Ramone's focus has shifted. She revealed, "The lyrics deal more with other elements of my life that bring me pain, like the way our band is perceived. Those insults – that our band is a flash in the pan, or whatever – really hurt."

Speaking about her other projects, she said that her band, the Babies, recently finished their first LP, due out in January via Shrimper. They've already set their sights on album number two, as they're planning to record in L.A. over the winter.

Ramone also has a solo album complete, made up of songs deemed unsuitable for Vivian Girls. "There are songs on the solo album that are just strange," she admitted. "There are a few mellow acoustic songs. There are two songs with saxophone. I got Ira Raibon, who plays saxophone for Earth, Wind & Fire, to make an appearance on it, which is cool."

With Vivian Girls bandmate Kickball Katy in the process of rolling out her La Sera side-project, fuzz pop fans are guaranteed to have lots of new material to keep them satisfied in the new year.

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